badass, sexy-as-hell husband. We’re here to talk about Shane and Jensen’s Hallmark-movie-level romance.”
“I don’t know if I’d consider it Hallmark-movie level,” Poppy said. “With the drama and evil parents it seems more Lifetime-Movie-Network level.”
Farah cut her eyes to Poppy. “Anyway. As I was saying before we got completely off track, his dad’s a crooked bastard and his mom’s an evil bitch. They’re so bad they give my own parents a run for their money.”
That was really saying something since Farah’s parents were complete slime. Not only had they neglected Farah all her life, when she’d been attacked and nearly died, they’d insinuate it had been her fault. She moved here to escape them and that life, and not long after, her brother Jase followed. When he married and fell for Poppy—in that order—they’d reared their ugly heads once again and had Poppy kidnapped by a hitman, trying to force Jase into paying them the ransom.
When it came to who had the worse parents, Jase and Farah or Jensen, I wasn’t sure who’d come out the winner—or, more aptly, the loser—in that competition.
“I’ve hated that woman since the first time I met her,” I announced. “Jensen hadn’t given me the whole ugly story yet, but I knew from just seeing her that there was something seriously off. Then, when he told me how she used to just stand by when his dad would beat him, I wanted to track her down and scratch her eyes out.”
Farah looked at me with sadness in her eyes. “His dad used to beat him?”
“And worse,” I admitted, feeling my heart break all over again. I still remembered all the horror stories he’d shared with me to this day, in vivid detail. Just thinking about it turned my stomach. What my man had lived through and suffered at their hands, it was a wonder he came out of it at all. Whitman and Cordelia were the absolute worst kinds of people. I shared some of it with these women I was as close to as blood, including how he’d shown up on my doorstep when he’d been eighteen years old, beat to hell and hardly conscious, but kept the worst of it to myself. Still, it was enough for my friends to have the same heartbreaking reaction I had when I first heard the truth of it all.
“Oh my God,” Poppy covered her mouth with her hand as her big blue eyes shined with unshed tears.
“She just stood there and let it happen,” I continued. “Which, in my opinion is even worse than the monster inflicting the pain. It wasn’t that she was scared for herself, it was that she didn’t care. He was her son and she didn’t care what happened to him just as long as her husband continued to treat her like a princess.”
“You should do it,” Wynn said in an adorable little growl, her violet eyes narrowed into slits. “You should track that bitch down and totally scratch her eyes out. It’s the least she deserves.”
“You know, that’s not a bad idea, actually,” Poppy mused.
We all whipped around in her direction. “You’re joking, right?” I cried. “I can’t just go hunt the woman down and beat the shit out of her.”
“Maybe not beat the shit out of her, but you could confront her. I mean, isn’t that basically what she did to you? She tracked you to a grocery store—which, by the way is totally creepy—so she could confront you. You’d just be doing the same thing. Rub her face in it that her son’s happy now. That’s what they were always trying to take from him anyway. There’s nothing bitter, miserable people hate more than knowing someone else is happier than they are.”
“Or—” Wynn interjected. “We could key her car and slash her tires.”
“You know what? Forget everything I just said. That. What she said.” She pointed to Wynn. “We should do that.”
“Oh my God, you psychos, I’m not going to go vandalize her car.”
“Well this lunch turned out to be a big waste of my time, then,” Wynn grumbled. “So much for best felony friends forever.”
I stared at my friend in open-mouthed stupefaction. “You know, for being such a cute, tiny, pixie-looking thing, you’re actually really terrifying.”
She smiled saucily. “Well thanks, babe. That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
Wynn was hilarious and I loved the crap out of her, but I pitied the man who ended up falling in love with her.
Jensen
Walking through the doors of Bad Alibi,